


Fragments

by Pappillon



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: All of the Diamonds are here for this one Guys!, Body Horror, Diamond Authority - Freeform, F/F, Insanity, Loss, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 14:39:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8988265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pappillon/pseuds/Pappillon
Summary: After Pink Diamond's death, White and Yellow attempt to bring her back and make another discovery along the way.





	

After hours of experimentation, White Diamond’s laboratory had filled with a thin smoke which diluted its bright lights. The colors from the various machines flashed in and out of the scientific fog, and the area remained still, as did White Diamond. She held her head in her hands, looking as though it weighed the most of all her body parts. The bags beneath her eyes hung dark and awful. She had been there forever. 

They had both been there forever. 

“Maybe we should stop.” 

With an alarming quickness, White struck Yellow with a glare. 

“I don’t mean indefinitely.” 

Silver eyes slid to the floor. “But I feel like we’re so close.”

Yellow didn’t reply. 

Above the cold, grey work surface floated a few clear bubbles full of gem shards. Aside from being broken, some showed chemical burns and color changes and scars from where they had been melted. Just one of those spheres reflected yellow. The cold lights hummed from the ceiling. 

“We’re just missing something. Are you any closer to—” 

“I’m working on it.” 

“Don’t you snap at me.” 

Both Diamonds stared at one another, but in a rare concession, White Diamond set her wrinkled brows back into her open palm. Her whole body inflated with frustration before she gasped it all out. Her opera-singer lungs expelled air a long time. 

“I’m not trying to nag, Yellow. I just want her pieces, and I want that traitor Rose Quartz. I need to figure this out, but we both need a break. Go back. We’ll meet here again when we’re well-rested.” 

Yellow, too, let out a long breath. “Please promise that you really will leave this laboratory.” 

White pinched her bottom lip. “Let’s go back together.” Despite those words, the Snow Queen lingered. Her attention caught on the gem shards while those crazy sharp nails tore up her loose skin. 

“White, come on.” 

The one frozen in place dared her legs into moving and both of them left. The clinical lights and various machines took a while to power down. The electricity disappeared in sections until the entire room went dark. The smell from the experiments clung and imbedded itself deep into the empresses’ clothes, and Yellow and White wore it home in silence. Eau de Sciènce held such potency that it tended to cling for complete solar cycles. 

Blue Diamond remarked on Yellow’s new perfume as she tried to wash it off. 

“My stars—” 

Yellow arched her back in response to the aggressive scrubbing. 

“I thought you said this was going to be pleasant.”

“It was going to be, until you bathed in sulfur, apparently.” Blue had turned parts of her lover’s flesh a raw golden color. Suddenly, she stopped and sniffed Yellow’s hair, only to throw her sponge into the misty waters of her bath. “My stars, why does science have to stink? Yellow, I usually delight in doing this for you, but this is unfair. Surely you know that this is no way for a Diamond to smell.” 

“Does that mean you’re going to stop?” 

“I have to. My arms hurt.” 

“I think you made me bleed.” 

“I’m sorry.” Blue leaned in and kissed Yellow’s jaw from the back, beneath her ear. “But I can’t allow you to leave here until I’m done with you.”

Both of those enormous women settled beside one another, gazes meeting in the in-between. Yellow reached out a hand that landed upon Blue’s cheek. Her fingerprints touched delicately the unsightly bags growing beneath her lover’s eyes.

Blue leaned into her palm and whispered with the dirtiest parts of her mouth: “I don’t want to kiss you right now.” 

Yellow laughed. “You’re such a bitch.” 

The other empress’s face crinkled in amusement. Yellow felt her eyes close and watched as her mouth stretched into a smile. Blue shook in her mirth, and this slight quake transferred into the other Diamond’s hand. 

Those long lashes brushed against Yellow’s prints. Blue had placed her free palm upon her companion’s, and they ended up interlocking their fingers. 

Then the sun goddess leaned forward and afflicted the tip of Blue’s nose with her offensive lips.

“No! You stink!” 

Both of them were still laughing. Yellow aimed for her cheek and ended up with the side of her mouth. 

“Yellow—” 

“What?” 

Blue had placed her hand over the other queen’s gem and pushed her gently away. Unfortunately, the small distance between them did not account for Yellow’s long neck and the golden goddess reached over easily and captured Blue’s forehead. 

“Stop! You’re cheating!” 

Somehow, they ended up with one of Blue’s hands over Yellow’s mouth. Those sunshine lips scrunched into the moon goddess’s heartlines and turned her a dark and bashful blue. 

Eventually, Yellow took her hand like a lady’s. 

“I can’t believe how dumb you are.” 

“Let me wash your back.” 

“Ha! I bet you’re going to try and kiss me again.” 

“Not at all. It’s your turn.” Yellow’s mouth popped against Blue Diamond’s wrist, which caused her dainty fingers to curl inward. She delicately touched parts of Yellow’ face. “I have to repay you anyway, for your kindness.” 

“Well, alright.” Blue turned around and allowed her lover access to all of her naked back. “I trust you not to be too petty.” 

“I’ll try my best.” 

Yellow took some of the soap, which smelled of lavender and a mix of other flowers. Perhaps at least something good came of that rotten planet. 

Sunny fingers smoothed over the cramps in Blue’s shoulders and the ocean queen never complained, even though her partner went deep to untangle her tense muscles. 

“Yellow—”

“I’m not actually trying to hurt you.” 

“It’s not that.” 

Yellow stopped for a moment, with one hand resting flat upon the nape of Blue’s neck. Only a few seconds passed before she continued. The ellipses weighed heavy, but neither Diamond acknowledged them. 

“How is White holding up?” 

The golden goddess paused again. “Not well.” Then her thumbs made circles around those shoulder blades. “You know how she is. White won’t stop until we make some progress.” 

“Do you even think…” 

“No. I don’t think it’s possible. Not entirely. But that’s an answer she refuses to accept. We’ll keep trying, but eventually, White will have to come around. We don’t even have her shards.” 

Blue reached back and placed a hand on Yellow’s leg. “How are you holding up?” 

She couldn’t answer that. 

“I can understand why White feels the way she does. I miss Pink too. But those two were always close. Of course they were. White was just ecstatic when Pink emerged. Do you remember when we went to meet her for the first time?” 

“White forced us to dress up. ‘Yellow, she’s a Diamond. Show some decorum!’ I don’t think it would have mattered if we had shown up in the nude. Pink would have been happy to meet us.” 

Yellow stopped talking and continued to move her fingers. Both she and Blue had done this so many times that it didn’t require much focus. As she massaged, the odd drowning feeling rolled in—where panic grew in her stomach and her eyes filled with salt. 

Above everything, Blue Diamond spoke: “You’re safe, aren’t you?” Her voice, which could silence a crowd, appeared little outside her lips. 

Yellow replied with the same volume. “Yes. Are you?” 

“I’m doing the best I can.” 

“I don’t want you anywhere near that Hell hole.” 

“I know, but there isn’t much of a choice, is there?” 

Yellow’s arms wrapped around Blue. Gently, they slipped beneath her breasts and held her firmly, until hardly any space remained between them. The Ocean Queen reached upward to clean her cheeks, but because her hands were already wet, nothing came of it. Blue’s arms instead came to settle around Yellow’s, and both Diamonds remained that way until they couldn’t any longer. Their obligations drove them apart. 

Yellow had once seen White Diamond holding Pink that way, when they thought they were alone.

Both of them stood near White’s enormous window, facing out into the glory of a star-heavy patch of space. All of the light and colors made them appear as silhouettes, and White reached out to touch the youngest on the cheek. 

Yellow had come to tell her something or other—about some business matter—about some other planet. Now she stood very quietly in the entrance of White’s leisure room, watching as the eldest drew away from the youngest. 

White Diamond stepped back. She shook her head and turned away from the other silhouette. Pink’s wild hair obscured her face, but Yellow watched as she forcefully claimed White’s hand, demanding that the snow empress look at her. 

Space shined magical and bright behind them as Pink Diamond stood on her toes to kiss White. Their touch lasted only a short time, but their hands remained clasped together. They faced one another. White gulped and shaped her lips around the other’s name. 

When Pink drew anywhere near her, White’s paper cheeks burned silver. Those wild eyes glowed with fire and the whole goddess unconsciously sparkled. Pink shimmered too. 

Their shadows moved closer to one another, fusing into a strange monster that shared one mouth and wrapped all four arms around itself. 

They broke the bond between their tongues to laugh. White shook a bit and continued. Sometimes both of them connected at the wrong angle and they had to try again, and in those small moments between the long kisses, they whispered secrets to one another. 

Eventually, they ended up facing out into space. White wrapped her arms around Pink and leaned over occasionally to set her lips to one of those rosy cheeks, telling more little truths directly to her ear. Pink Diamond laughed and spoke back, because she had just as much to say. 

Yellow finally went away. 

The day Pink Diamond left for Earth, White had dressed to the nines to see her off. She slayed in a long, transparent cape that hung from her shoulder pads and tower-high heels that sparkled almost as much as she did. Her bush of wild hair had been tamed, and she wore top-of-the-line bad bitch eyeliner sharp enough to cut. 

White killed it holding back tears. 

“Pink, you promise me you’ll be careful.” 

“Of course.” 

“And you’ll call us if you need help.” 

“Yes.” 

“And—you’ll check in at least occasionally to let me know how you are.” 

“White, don’t worry.” Pink grasped her hand the same way she did on the balcony that day. “Everything is going to be alright.” 

White took those powerful arms that held Homeworld and used them to capture the other queen. Their faces touched, and both empresses returned to the four-armed monster they had been, hardly a molecule between them. Pink could barely get out a laugh because White had flattened her lungs in the gravity of her embrace. 

“I’m so proud of you,” said the voice whose power could shatter glass. 

Pink’s face blossomed fuchsia and they split apart. White left a hand on the other Diamond’s shoulder while she used the other to clean up the few escaped tears. Her elegant fingers did an excellent job of working around her eyeliner. 

“My stars, I’m going to miss you.” 

“White, I won’t be gone that long.” Pink used the heel of her palm to wipe up her own tears, smearing her eyes shut and turning them red. “Once we get warp pads set up, I’ll come back.” 

“I know you will.” With a squeeze of her remaining hand, White Diamond let go. “I’ll allow the others to see you off. We have a schedule to adhere to.” 

The eldest stepped aside to allow Yellow and Blue to wish the youngest farewell. The Snow Empress leaked hot tears and carefully wiped them away. Her controlled face contracted; her plump lips crunched into a thin line, and inevitably, her eyeliner smeared. 

Eventually, Pink left behind three Diamonds that would never be four again. 

Yellow found White in the laboratory only half a rotation after leaving Blue’s bath. The clinical lights shined as brightly as they possibly could and drew out every detail of White Diamond’s face. Grey bags went on like abused riverbanks beneath her colorless eyes. Her fat lips were raw and dry, and her regular bush of wild hair had tangled into a tumbleweed. She smelled of sulfur and science and didn’t even look up to greet Yellow when she came in. White focused only on the test tube in her hand, which she heated to a boil. 

The bubbles were broken and the gem shards were out. 

Yellow Diamond smelled heavily of lavender. 

“White, how long have you been here?” 

The sound choked inside the lab’s silence. All the while, White never moved her gaze from her vial of boiling liquid. 

“You heard me, didn’t you?” 

“I think I’ve made progress. I was able to get them to stick together. I’m working on a better formula now. Would you mind injecting the ones on the table into the rock—”

“White—”

“What, Yellow?” 

“How long have you been here?” 

Finally, those silver eyes and their unspeakable power met Yellow’s. The only sound came from the bubbling liquid between White’s fingers. 

“I don’t know how long it’s been. I went back to my chambers and couldn’t rest, so I returned here to get some peace of mind. You visited Blue Diamond, didn’t you?” 

Yellow didn’t answer. 

“No matter. Will you plant those gem fragments? Please.”

Upon the table sat a tray full of broken traitors. Their types and colors varied greatly between one another. White had done her best to paste them together, but with even the tiniest slivers missing, a perfect fit couldn’t happen. Some of these gems almost resembled their original forms, even though they wore terrible scars from being stitched together again. 

Yellow examined those little creatures in her large hands. 

White had come to the table to create more of them. She poured her elixir onto the fragments of a quartz she had torn to bits and worked as they stuck together. Though the burn marks appeared less severe, the gem still had seams where it had been sewn. 

“White.” 

“What?” 

A long gulp passed down Yellow’s golden neck. 

White continued: “I know they’re not aesthetically pleasing, but let’s see what happens.” 

“I don’t think this is going to work.” 

The other empress merely stared. 

“Even if we manage to get her shards, we would need every piece of her. Have you considered making another Pink—”

“I don’t want another Pink Diamond. I want the Pink Diamond those traitors shattered. I want the Pink Diamond that remembers me—the one that remembers you and Blue and everything we had—” White gasped in her tears. “You don’t even care, do you?” 

“White—” 

“Of course you don’t think it’s going to work. You haven’t been here, trying to get these fragments to stick together. And why would you come here? You still have Blue Diamond—”

“White Diamond, please!” 

“You never cared for her! That’s why you can so casually suggest we just make another one! As if she would be the same! What if it were you?” Grey smoke poured from one side of her mouth. “At this point I wish it had been.” 

Yellow took a step back and watched as White’s face washed over in smoke. Her weeping bounced against the empty walls of the cold laboratory as the other Diamond stared on. 

Yellow dried her own tears. “I know you loved her more than Blue or me, but how could you say I never cared for her? I loved her too. We all did. I’m just not delusional enough to believe I can bring her back from the dead. This is a waste of time.” 

White cleared her steam. “I have to try.” 

“You’re smarter than this!” 

A long pause followed in which both empresses beat her feelings into submission and cleaned the evidence from her cheeks. 

Out of the aftermath, White spoke first: “If you’re not going to help me, you can leave.” 

“Fine.” Yellow replied, and indeed, left. 

Neither spoke to one another for a while after that. In the turmoil, time distorted. The Diamonds did their jobs and communicated only through short messages. 

Revenge required a lot of time. 

Yet one day, after an exhaustive strain of shifts, Yellow travelled to Pink Diamond’s palace, where many gems had come to mourn. Her statues had been covered in flowers. Her chambers rang with silence. 

Yellow hadn’t come with any offering for her fellow Goddess’s grave; she merely carried the echo of her footsteps down the empty halls, but when she came to the innermost sanctum of that abandoned temple, sound bounced between the walls. The air carried words written in an ancient language, wafting upon the highest of notes. 

Yellow had heard this song before; she may have even tried to sing it, though she couldn’t match the sounds currently floating around the chamber. Her voice never reached quite high enough. Yet, those difficult tones drifted along as if they weighed nothing. Their bodies were light and perfect and sad. 

White sang to Pink Diamond’s statue, which nearly matched her original height. The music poured from her impressive lungs; she always made it look so easy. Those notes, in their notorious difficulty, entered the blood stream and shot straight to the chest, accumulating there until the final cry came softly and sweetly. Unlike many of White’s favorite songs, this one did not end with an impossible explosion to belt out. The climax grasped the heart strings gently and floated away. 

But this time, it didn’t. The empress of empresses choked and cut the final note before it would leave her body. Instead, the sound burned inside her, where it produced cruel tears. Yellow watched as White cleaned them, one by one. 

Sometimes, with no shame at all, Pink would kiss White right on the cheek. She made a game of turning her face silver. 

If any of the others ever tried such a trick, White would have taken one of her long legs and kicked them in half, or at least chewed them out. But Pink made White chase her around her palace. Pink made White’s expression awash in blush. Pink made White sing. 

The Snow Queen never turned to look at her, and Yellow didn’t visit Pink Diamond’s statue.

They spoke shortly after that, when White Diamond called from her chambers. 

“Yellow…” Her voice started, but static finished. 

The golden goddess replied anyway: “White, how are you holding up?” 

“I’m sorry for what I said. I don’t wish it were you. I wouldn’t wish this on any of us. I’m in a lot of pain. Can you forgive me?” 

She sounded more like a beaten animal than the queen of Homeworld. 

“I know you spoke out of anger.” 

“Do you forgive me, then?” 

Yellow’s response took some time. “I do.” 

On the other end, White’s dry lips coiled. The gears of her throat made a lot of noise as they went about making words. “Yellow, I love you. I love Blue Diamond too. I love all of you. I loved what we were…” 

Static washed in. 

“I love you too, White.” 

“Do you forgive me?” 

Yellow crinkled her brows. “Yes.” 

“I just can’t believe this. I can’t believe we’ve lost a Diamond.” White sniffled on the other side and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “It should have been me. I’ve lived long enough.” 

“Don’t say that.” 

“Can you come back to the laboratory? I’ve made some progress and I need your opinion.” 

“White—”

“I still want to try and bring her back, but that’s not what I’m asking you about. Just meet me there and we’ll talk.” 

“Fine. I’ll see you soon.” 

White hung up and Yellow sighed. 

Both of them met at the laboratory. 

The elder empress arrived first and placed all of her experiments upon the table—shards that had been glued back together through various means. White Diamond herself wore a special brand of exhaustion that drank up her beauty and made severe lines upon her face. The bags beneath her eyes deepened. Her forehead owned a set of perpetual crinkles, and her hair—which leaned toward disarray on a normal day—created a thorn bush. 

The laboratory hadn’t been cleaned in a while. 

Burn marks and chemical spills decorated the table and floor. The room smelled terrible from the reactions of various elements, and a dense gas polluted the air. Everything appeared hazy inside this unnatural fog. 

White cleared her throat: “I wanted to show you what I’ve been working on.” 

The gem shards shined dully beneath the light. 

“I was able to make them bond together fairly well. Hopefully you can help me with the solution I’m using. You were always very gifted in chemistry, but that’s not actually what I wanted to show you.” She moved to the corner of the laboratory, where one of her clear bubbles floated. Despite being several meters apart, Yellow made out the two-toned gem inside that Crystal sphere. 

White set the experiment free and placed it on the table amongst its sisters. 

“Is that—”

“It is two different gems. And look—”

A bright light emerged from the creature’s body—forming a long, slender arm attached to a bulbous foot. It dragged itself across the table in short distances by slapping its palm down and rolling up its boney fingers. The heel then made one clumsy hop forward before falling over and undulating in frustration. 

White Diamond laughed. “Look at this stupid thing, Yellow. It moves. I got it to move.” 

That little monster flapped around on the table, disrupting many of the other shards as it tried to regain balance. Eventually, it landed flat and remained still for several seconds. 

Yellow couldn’t speak. 

“I know. It’s sick, isn’t it? This creature is grotesque. It’s disgusting. I can’t believe those rebels pushed me to make something so twisted, but look—I made life from broken gems. I’m one step closer to getting Pink Diamond back—we just need her shards, Yellow. With a few more experiments, we might be able to—no, I know we can bring back a fully functioning gem. We’re so close—”

Yellow looked down at the creature, which had made a little progress against the cold table. Something talked her glove into picking it up, and the amalgamation panicked at the touch. It wriggled like a worm and tried to escape, but then settled after several seconds. The fingers of its hand came to grasp just one of Yellow’s.

The golden goddess grimaced. “I can’t imagine a worse fate.” 

White didn’t reply. She merely looked on with sleepless eyes that had recorded countless horrors. 

“Let’s shatter those rebels and make them into these creatures, since they love fusion so much.” 

“Yellow, I’m so glad you think so. I wasn’t sure what you would say.” White embraced the other Diamond. Little space lied between them and Yellow could smell every chemical that had gotten onto her. She wreaked of fire and science and exhaustion, and now fresh salt water tears. “I want to hurt them so badly. Nothing would satisfy me more, than to watch them suffer. They deserve to writhe for what they’ve done to her. For what they’ve done to us.” 

White’s body grew hot with revenge. 

The creature squirmed inside Yellow’s glove and the golden queen remained still. Her stone must have clouded over with White’s warmth. 

“I never knew I could be in so much pain.” Her fire cooled, only for a moment. “Let’s send those traitors to Hell. I won’t smile again, until I know they’re burning.” 

Yellow finally wrapped her arms around White. In doing so, she dissipated the monster’s form. Both of them held on tightly and remained that way a long time. White shook as she decorated Yellow’s shoulder with salty tears and bitter memories of happier times—when a pink balloon of glittery joy used to be tied around her wrist. 

The heat of White Diamond’s rage caused more droplets to boil inside Yellow’s eyes. 

The sunshine spoke to the snow and the white-hot flame: “Let’s make it so they never know happiness again.” 

And White Diamond grasped her tightly.


End file.
